BOOK REVIEW: THE RAVEN BOYS BY MAGGIE STIEFVATER

“There are only two reasons a non-seer would see a spirit on
St. Mark’s Eve,” Neeve said. “Either you’re his true love . . . or you killed
him.”

It is
freezing in the churchyard, even before the dead arrive.

Every year, Blue Sargent stands next to her
clairvoyant mother as the soon-to-be dead walk past. Blue herself never sees
them—not until this year, when a boy emerges from the dark and speaks directly
to her.

His name is Gansey, and Blue soon discovers that
he is a rich student at Aglionby, the local private school. Blue has a policy
of staying away from Aglionby boys. Known as Raven Boys, they can only mean
trouble.

But Blue is drawn to Gansey, in a way she can’t
entirely explain. He has it all—family money, good looks, devoted friends—but
he’s looking for much more than that. He is on a quest that has encompassed
three other Raven Boys: Adam, the scholarship student who resents all the
privilege around him; Ronan, the fierce soul who ranges from anger to despair;
and Noah, the taciturn watcher of the four, who notices many things but says
very little.

For as long as she can remember, Blue has been
warned that she will cause her true love to die. She never thought this would
be a problem. But now, as her life becomes caught up in the strange and
sinister world of the Raven Boys, she’s not so sure anymore.

Sometimes books keep us company and teach us how to be
alone. Sometimes they take us elsewhere, and tell us stories as they do. At
times they annihilate long stretches of time, compress boredom into nothingness
and convey the lessons we never thought to seek.

And every once in awhile, we come across those books that do
more than alleviate boredom and keep us company. We come across the books that
evoke the memories we thought we lost and the feelings we never knew we had. So
they go deeper than skin-deep, with words that leave an imprint in our souls
and with scenes that stay with us even when those books aren't immediately
before us. I don't mean to be poetic, really, there's just no other way to put
it. This was one of those books for me.

No spoilers ahead.

"The Raven Boys" is
being marketed predominantly as a paranormal romance. From the vaguely sinister
line on the front cover which warns about true love and deadly kisses, to the "this is the year Blue will fall in
love" romance-novel-reminiscent synopsis on the back, the book seems
to promise a plot not unlike those often seen in the YA genre as of late. A quietly
special girl who falls in love with an obviously special boy. And in many ways,
this marketing strategy is indicative of what's to come: a complete and utter
demolition of all expectations.

Also, little to no romance.

There is, however, something to
ship. From the very first page, I have begun to ship Maggie Stiefvater and
writing. I ship it. I ship it so hard.

(Yes, I am aware that I just used the word ship three thousand times
in four sentences.)

The essence of my love for this story is merely this: intricate, deep and detailed characters, an elaborate plot, unique storylines, beautifully crafted sentences, humor in all the right parts, a mystical atmosphere and a stunning attention to detail throughout. (And ravens. I happen to really like ravens. Blame Poe.)

Told from a third person point of
view, the story follows a group of close friends from an elite private school,
dubbed the raven boys after the
emblem on their school crest. Simultaneously, the story follows Blue, the only
non-seer in a long line of women with psychic abilities. Blue has made peace
with the fact that she does not possess the gift of sight... until the night
when one of the raven boys' spirits approaches her in the churchyard and speaks
directly to her. From here, the story unfolds and follows - much as the title
suggests - the four raven boys, in their quest for a meaning of life, a
long-lost king, a way out of a bad situation, a dormant energy source, and
pretty much everything in-between. (Oh,
and some raven kibbles.)

What insistently and repeatedly
floored me all throughout this novel, and its very crowning glory, is the
characterization. The way these characters are built is unlike almost anything
I have ever read before in YA literature. The depth, the complexity and the
subtle nuances to each and every single relevant character were honed to
perfection. This is not a story about one
raven boy, where his other three friends serve as secondary, supporting
characters to his storyline, with their main purpose being to cheer him on. No,
this is the story of four raven boys and a psychic's daughter, and each of the
five has their own part to play. They not only come with individual pasts, they
come with wishes, desires, dreams and fears stemming from those pasts, and
interlacing with one another to form a skeleton on which the characters are
later built. And the way that all this is presented is no less impressive.
Maggie Stefvater has a way with words. She has a superb way of introducing
these characters' many dimensions through subtle insights and small, passing
remarks. The information dumping is absent where characters are concerned. They
are unveiled at the same pace in which the plot is, until we feel about them as
if they were our own towards the end. A loss of any one of them would be
tragic. They are deep, complex characters which are easy to love, despite their
shortcomings. In fact, they are the sort of characters which inspire affection because of their flaws and insecurities.
They feel so real. They are almost tangible. They make you flash back to the 90s when you were watching "Friends"
and agonizing over your inability to pick a favorite.

The atmosphere is no less
amazing. From trailer parks to private schools, from tales of Wales and Peru to
the small town in Virginia where the story takes place, the setting exudes a
mystical, magical element so vital to paranormal stories. Even if the
worldbuilding does take awhile to make complete sense, even if at first the
reader is forced to connect the dots (and pencil in some missing ones), by page
100 the story has taken off, the world has been established and the magical
atmosphere has sucked us in. And whether it's Blue unraveling the plot in a
hectic, crowded house full of psychics, or whether it's the raven boys doing
their part in warehouses, churchyards and/or helicopter rides, the magic never,
ever ceases and the essence of paranormalcy is everpresent.

And this is not where the
uniqueness of this novel ends. "The Raven Boys" presents a paranormal
plot where the supreme villain is ignorance - not ignorance personified, just
ignorance as-is. The supernatural quest which all five protagonists embark on
is not a secret, nor is there a proverbial other
side, seeking to prevent them. But perhaps I should insert an asterisk here
for those who don't mind indiscriminate, vaguely foreboding spoilers.*

All around, this is a supremely
told story, and a spectacular introduction to a four-book series. Not only does
the ending bleed into the second book
in a way so utterly seamless that you itch to own the second one this very
second, it also makes the characters stay
with the reader long after the final page. There's so much more to know.
There's so much more to discover. The quest has just begun. And I can't wait to
join the tandem in their second attempt at it.

-------------------------

* Notat first.
(This is where you play the X Files music for dramatic effect. To many 90s TV
references? I'm 22. Bear with me.)

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Hello from Natalie and Lexie!

This is where book obsession, book reviews and general bookaholic tendencies converge in a tiny, blog-sized package. News, reviews, lists, discussions and more are available weekly, primarily in the field of Middle Grade, Young Adult and New Adult literature..